Dear Adcresco,
I have known you since the day I stepped foot on campus in 2011. Now they are taking me away from you in a hazy chain of forwarded emails. Times have never been more unfair but that is our luck. We have always gotten the short end of the stick. Now it is not any different.
Many in this class I have known for nine years, some just recently. Each one of you has made a lasting impact on who I’ve become. On the type of person I should be for this sorrowful, broken world. I will never forget my brothers, particularly my roommates, Rigpea, River, Tej, Abhik, Rishabh, Palden, Perm, Visakuo, Shyamu, Ryan, Giju, Vikentiy, Amul, Sunggon, Harssh Tanwar, Ilya, Karma, Leo, Mark, Dheer, Saahir, Veer, Sethi, Swapnil, Bhatia, and Win, throughout these nine years.
Woodstock was a time of great happiness and defeat for me. I made friends that are going to last a lifetime. However, I also put effort into toxic relationships. I became vulnerable and saw different consequences. But these traits are not uncommon: they outline the basis of any family. We hate each other. We love each other. Most importantly, we stick with each other. No matter what our differences are. Adcresco, you have been my family.
You always will be.
It pains me that I could not bid proper farewells to everyone before departing from campus. But these times make unpredictability a normality. I urge everyone to realize that it isn’t the school’s fault for any of this, as easy it is to focus the blame on one entity. This virus has taken the world by its core, Woodstock was paved for its due course.
Instead of focusing on the hate and nausea, let us grow in love for each other and compassion for the school. Our name means “to grow” and by wallowing in what could not happen, we are doing a disservice to what we stand for. Like the virus, let us make our compassion contagious to the remnants of this fragmented world.
Never has been there a greater need “to grow” than now.
I was hoping to address you all one final time before we graduate. As a person who has lived half his life at Woodstock, believe me when I tell you that I am angry at my core. But we have to do better. We must do better. For if we truly are family, then physical distance shouldn’t keep us apart.
As we venture into the unknown, take comfort in the fact that we all are doing it together.
You are never alone.
Best wishes,
Dhrub
Dhrubhagat Singh is an editor-in-chief emeritus
thewoodstocker.com 